Campaign Management

Chaos is defined as disorder, but a good campaign manager will manage political chaos into organization, where everything has a place, everyone has a role, and every day is maximized with the plans for mobilization, money, and message. In this episode, you will learn how to manage the candidate, staff, volunteers, consultants, stakeholders, and projects for a local or state political campaign. A campaign manager is a big role with one goal: win. In this episode we will cover everything you need to know about leading a political campaign. 

Learn more about Organizing to Win: The Art & Science of Running for Office - including free downloadable guides - by visiting OrganizingtoWin.com.

Transcript

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You're listening to the audio version of Jimmy Tickey's book Organizing to Win: The Art and Science of Running for Office. This book will teach you how to enter the political arena, manage a campaign, and run for office.

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Surprises, setbacks, and spin. For generations, people could disagree on policy, but there was a fundamental agreement to basic facts of the matter. Largely, people and their political parties agreed on the problem, but it was a matter of how we get there to find a solution. There was a notion that many freedoms for Americans transcended political parties. That's no longer true with an emboldened segment of the population refusing basic facts. With a fractured media environment, people believe whatever they see while scrolling on their phones must be true, as they are surrounded by an ecosystem of messages that match their already held beliefs, an agreeable algorithm. Your online ecosystem will tell you just what you want to hear. So we've come far from an exchange of ideas where people could agree on the facts but agree to disagree on the policy approach. As a candidate, you are speaking to the voters we have outlined, base and persuasion voters, because we only have so much time in a campaign. You won't be targeting those who will never vote for you. But your candidacy will be discussed by everyone, both in praise and criticism. You need to know your policy positions forward and backward and learn to talk about them in different ways. When discussing those policies, you'll be tempted to remind voters just how wrong your opponent is, but you need to tell them why you are right. What are your positive plans for the future? Keep in mind your opponent will be looking for ways to disrupt your campaign too. When an opponent attacks you, it likely means you are effective and your opposition is getting nervous. In those times, just keep going. You need to be prepared for attacks, surprises, and even your own errors. It's inevitable, so when it happens, focus on mastering what is within your control and mitigate what is beyond your control. When your campaign is rocked by an external force, you want to be in a position of having a well-run campaign with processes so your campaign can withstand the incident as your operation continues to move forward. If you get distracted and your day is spent putting out fires or worrying about external issues, rather than advancing your goals, you did not win the day. I want you to achieve your daily goals, outorganize your opponent, and win the day. Then we'll put one good day in front of the next, winning the week, the season, and then the campaign. Getting ahead of surprises. I've seen campaigns get rocked by an attack from an opponent where all hands on deck are called to craft a response and 100% of resources are devoted to answering the charge. Remember that message box you did when you decided to run? That would be the tool to use to get ahead of surprises. You can guarantee that if you have a skeleton in the closet, your opponents will remind voters of it. So if there is something in your past you are not proud of, make it a part of your story and get ahead of it so when your opponent tries to weaponize it, you've already shared it with the public. Surprise Attack. At some point in the campaign, you will be attacked. It may be whispers on the streets or a full male campaign against you. Remember your message box and SWOT analysis and be ready to respond while also defining your opponent. While many decry negative campaigning, the truth is if your opponent is spreading misinformation, it has the potential to impact your campaign. It's important to assess the severity of the attack. Sometimes your opponent will throw anything your way, hoping to knock you off track. And it may not be worth your attention. So you and your team may decide ignoring a frivolous attack is the best response. You don't need to react to everything, so be discerning about what merits a response. Often, being accused of something by your opponent or their allies may take your attention for a few hours, but won't push your campaign off the rails indefinitely. Don't repeat the charge was advice a successful officeholder once told me, and that phrase rings in my ear when someone takes a jab and the very candidate being charged repeats it. If the candidate were to respond, they would only be informing more people about the accusation. Even if something has been disproved, people will remember the allegation if you repeat it. Then you risk others hearing it, and suddenly there is some doubt about your candidacy. Don't do your opponent's work. Should that surprise take hold and it has the potential to be damaging, review with your team how this is unfolding. Discuss with them if this is truly on voters' minds. In this instance, figure out the best way to respond. Perhaps you can equip volunteers and staff with talking points so they are prepared to discuss the matter. If something does merit a response, remember you have validators, those key community leaders who endorsed you, and they could counter the attack, thereby pushing back without you needing to engage publicly. If the press and public are asking, you should prepare an appropriate response through a statement. Your response should address that surprise and move beyond it. Too often, candidates react and focus on the charge, only making it worse and keeping the attention on the surprise. Don't sit in your own setback. Address it, manage it away, and move beyond it. A mistake. Let's acknowledge that 100% of people will not agree with you 100% of the time. Basically, not everything you do will be loved, and that is okay. But when you feel a firestorm coming, you need to deal with it. It's possible you made a mistake. Yes, you may make a mistake. Maybe you did something that got serious blowback, misspoke in a big way, made an error on campaign reports, or something worse, like poor conduct that calls into question your integrity. In those instances, you've got to move into crisis management by analyzing, accepting, apologizing, and moving forward. Analyze the situation with your team. Do not operate in a silo by yourself. Review the situation and the ramifications of the options you have: staying the course you took, changing something if it's not too late, reversing course altogether, or vowing to be better in the future. Accept full responsibility. When you talk about the matter, own it. Apologize if that is needed. By the way, bad behavior should always be apologized for. And move forward. How will you act in the future? When faced with a setback, discuss it with your team, design a path forward, and move beyond it. Take care of this quickly as possible and get back to winning the day. You may find yourself having some longer days after that setback, and you and your campaign will want to double down on your outreach efforts and see more people than usual. This will show the public you are back on track, even if you privately are not feeling that way yet. Sometimes it takes a long day to win the day. When faced with a setback, the candidate may have been expecting something like this would happen, but their loved ones weren't. In this case, our family and closest friends take it harder than the candidate does. As the candidate, you will be more concerned how the attack took a toll on loved ones and will reassure them before dealing with your own feelings. In moments like these, you will also be reminded of who your true friends are, so take note of that. After your campaign is rocked by an unfortunate event, remember to get back to the daily tasks at hand and ensure your operation is functioning as it was before the setback. Candidates can hold a staff meeting with kitchen cabinet members as a reset coming out of a challenging time. The same can be done for your top supporters, so you are demonstrating you are back on track. The candidate will continue to be asked hard questions for some time, and your campaign will move forward. This is why it's so important to get ahead of issues when you can. Without that, you risk more setbacks happening. A drip, drip, drip of bad news. Repeated drips can create a devastating trend and wash your campaign away. Monitoring your opponent. You can bet your opponent is watching you, and you should be monitoring them too. Your campaign should know your opponent's voting history. Have they ever missed voting in an election? Employment information. Who do they work for? Official voting record. Are they an elected official? And if so, what is their voting record? Property records. Where do they live? And what do they own? Serious criminal records. Voters may care about this. Public business tax filings. This is for anything improper or delinquent. Social media. Did they post anything that is hateful? Keep an eye on their social media and press activity to understand where they are going and what they are talking about. Ask your kitchen cabinet to relay what they hear about your opponent so you understand their message as the campaign unfolds. You'll learn about activity on the ground that can be helpful because eventually you will be in public together and having a sense of what the candidate is talking about will put you at an advantage. By tracking the opponent, you'll also study contradictions between what they say and what their public record is. Some campaigns will hire a consulting firm for opposition research, and depending on the scale of your campaign, you may consider hiring professionals to learn more about your opponent. Keep it classy. So, you'd like to make a contrast with your opponent. In other words, go negative. Truth is, as much as people decry negative campaigning, it does work. The principle of negativity bias says that people will remember the negative charges more than the positive attributes about the candidate. People are influenced by contrasts, so if your opponent has a dangerous view, you could share that with voters on the grounds of the policy. If your opponent conducts themselves in a way that is not deserving of voter's support, then you may consider contrasting that, but keep it to their positions and public conduct. Voters will pay attention to a contrast on the issues of the moral fiber of a person, but leave their family members out of it and don't make petty gripes. If you have a contrast, make sure it's correct. Making one that is not accurate will reflect on you. Then be prepared for your opponent to respond with a contrast of their own. That's why you may want to consider having a third-party source call attention to the matter rather than your own campaign. Should you decide to sling mud, just know you'll get some on you too. And is that the kind of dirty campaign you want to run? Debate prep. Preparing for a debate means reviewing policy papers, holding a mock debate, deciding what you'll wear, and everything in between. Your campaign should replicate what the debate format will be and have the candidate stand with a makeshift podium with someone who is knowledgeable on the campaign issues, like a campaign manager, acting as the opponent. As uncomfortable as it may be for first-time candidates, this kind of practice allows you to visualize the actual debate. Your campaign should practice the rules that are set in advance. If the debate has two-minute answers and 60-second rebuttals, then practice with that same format. Leave nothing to chance when you know there are strict rules. Your mock debate should include interruptions and aggressive moments from your mock opponent, just like in the forthcoming actual debate. Heading into the debate, if you are ahead in the race, then expect to be attacked where your opponent is going to try to have you make an error so they may gain traction in the race. Sometimes not losing the debate means you won. If your opponent couldn't successfully have you slip up, then you ended the debate just like you began, ahead in the race. Should the opponent make you respond to charges, be ready with a crisp answer and pivot back to your own message. As I have heard many times in politics, if you are explaining, you are losing. This is why it's important to practice with your team beforehand so that when you are faced with a tough question or contrast, you can answer and get back to your own agenda. When in a debate, be prepared to reintroduce yourself to voters, state your campaign message, outline ideas and draw distinctions with your opponent. If you feel you are running behind and you need to shake up the race, you can make stark contrasts. This is your chance, sometimes the only chance, to frame the choice and contrast your ideas with your opponent. Remember, your opponent does have some strength, though we don't want to admit it. Be aware of what those are and don't play to them in a debate, thereby giving your opponent an advantage. In the digital age where short statements are most memorable, remember to keep your phrasing without tangents. This way, your campaign may splice a clip that you can use on social media. After all, in a debate, you are talking to the audience, not the moderators or your opponent. This gets more complicated in multi-candidate races, and you may opt to stay positive with your own message if other candidates are attacking one another. If your opponents are fighting each other, get out of the way. This will be a part of a larger strategy your campaign will develop in multi-candidate races. Debate prep also means issue prep. It's a good idea to talk to subject matter experts. If you have a supporter who is a retired fire commissioner or former finance director at the local public schools, you can ask them to talk on background so you can improve your comfortability on topics and for them to offer feedback on your messaging. Depending on the scale of your campaign, you may have a briefing book with explanations on issues in your district. Using this briefing book, you may learn of better ways to speak on nuanced topics, be more aware of pitfalls, and note who the experts are on certain topics. I've been involved in campaigns when the candidate engages in issue prep by sitting around a table discussing the issues, flushing out viewpoints, and welcoming challenges in preparation. Remember that with a debate, your campaign should be working to ensure that when you look out at the audience there are friendly faces. Once the debate is announced, share those details with supporters so they may register and attend. Trust me, your opponent will be doing the same, and you do not want an aggressive crowd full of your opponent's supporters. Hecklers. Hecklers are not people with good intentions who are asking hard questions. We would welcome that. Instead, a heckler's mission is to get attention and disrupt, often sent by an opponent. The candidate should stay on message but may need to engage if the heckler has the room's attention. The candidate should answer their question, respond, and remind them that others came to hear the program and to be respectful so that the conversation can continue. Assure the heckler that we hear them and perhaps repeat at a high level what they are trying to address, whether it's about tax fairness policy or foreign affairs issue. Sometimes their campaigns may not even be relevant to your campaign, but they are taking this opportunity since there is an audience. After acknowledging them, move on and call on the next question or get back to your remarks. Should the heckler continue, your campaign needs to have a plan ready to de-escalate situations with a disruptive person. Staff may de-escalate by offering their contact information and asking them to step out of the room so they can talk about the issue. Remember, the audience will agree with the candidate because they don't want such a disruption. As safety and security continue to be a top priority, your campaign may want to give the local police the courtesy of a heads up regarding large community events. Evolving on issues. Perhaps you've had a long-held view on something, but as you talk to people outside of your bubble, you have a different perspective of the matter, and you find yourself evolving. There was once a time of such change of minds was the dreaded flip-flop. But in showing your thought process, voters will appreciate you being mindful and explaining after hearing from those impacted where you stand now. You should not change on every issue, but people have grown in their views, including marriage equality, cannabis policy, reproductive health care, and other issues, and we should allow space for people to develop and rethink positions. Spin. Your opponent may find new and obnoxious ways to get under your skin, and it's now your turn to share your side of the story, your spin. Spin doesn't mean sharing mistruths, but rather where we are focusing people's attention. One time an opponent of a candidate was touting how much money they raised, and while that was true, it was also true their campaign had few donors in the very district they were running in. Where the other candidate had more donors living in the district at smaller grassroots amounts. Suddenly the story was reframed. One campaign is people powered with many small dollar in-district contributions. Ask your team, how are we framing the story? Clickbait. Candidates will find there are times that the press will inquire, and it's clear they have the story written before you comment. You'll think, isn't the press supposed to be unbiased? This can be difficult, especially for first-time candidates, because you don't want to believe your words could be twisted and presented in a negative light. It's your choice to comment or to take a pass on giving a comment at all. In a fractured media environment, everyone has access to a social media site, rendering even your opponent's political party and others with an axe to grind as a self-appointed journalist. Their post may be clickbait, an article with a salacious headline aiming to get clicks for a nothing story. It could pedal rumors and lack facts, but nonetheless, with fewer press outlets and an audience for everything, they garner attention. Don't lend clickbait posts credibility. You can form a rapid response social media team of supporters who are tech savvy to help with accurate stories. This will allow your campaign to amplify positive news through posting, commenting, and sharing. We have a role to play in shaping public discourse, and your campaign should practice good information sharing and push back against misinformation and disinformation. Cybercriminals do not care about seniority in campaigns. Just as long as one person is attacked within your network, from a volunteer to the campaign manager, your campaign network could be compromised. When you're establishing your accounts, be sure you are using an email address that is the candidate's or a shared email for the campaign with a unique password, not a staff member's email address. As staff inevitably changes, it can make for a headache down the road to gain access into the account. When in doubt, elevate anything suspicious to a point person on the campaign for cybersecurity. Cyber threats are happening more frequently, so here are some tips. Protect online accounts with strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and refraining from sharing passwords with others who don't absolutely need access. All of your passwords should be in one master document that the candidate and campaign manager have, and you may want to encrypt that document too. If computers are shared in your office, be sure to log out of sites every time your work is complete, as you do not know who the next person using the computer will be. Should you receive a warning about an attempted login or see evidence that your account was logged into, change passwords immediately. Train staff in the latest cybersecurity best practices, including knowing what to look for with phishing attempts and suspicious emails. Phishing is when a cyberattacker sends an email that appears to be from a trusted source, tricking the receiver to offer sensitive information. Often these messages have an urgency about them, so you act fast without giving it proper thought. Have a camera outside your headquarters and a sign-in sheet inside headquarters so you can track all people coming in and out. Store a paper shredder at headquarters in case you need to discard proprietary or sensitive information in a secure way. Keep financial information off-site, perhaps at a treasurer's house, or under lock and key at the headquarters. Are you stressed and thinking about surprises, setbacks, and spin? Don't be.

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